タム6000
Cold Jiro-inspired dish "Yasai Ninniku Gari Mayo" (1050 yen). I had dinner near my place. Suddenly, when it comes to the summer tradition of Jiro-inspired restaurants, it all started with "Senrigan," and now each restaurant competes to show their originality with cold dishes. I heard that "Butayama," a Jiro-inspired restaurant located in the former site of the popular yakisoba shop "Koraku Soba" in front of Gotanda Station, also offers cold dishes, so I decided to try it out. By the way, Butayama always has a line outside the shop, maybe because of its prime location. I arrived at 8:00 pm on a weekday. Surprisingly, there was no line, so I bought a ticket for the small size of the cold dish and sat at the counter. The staff here is very friendly. The explanation of the toppings was also detailed, making it easy for Jiro-style beginners and women to enter the shop. It seems like you have to call out your order for the cold dish, so I ordered the "Yasai Ninniku Gari Mayo" and waited for a while. The dish arrived in about 5 minutes. Oh... When it comes to Jiro-style cold dishes, the choice of vegetables is a key point of uniqueness (Senrigan uses shredded daikon radish and purple cabbage). However, this cold dish uses bean sprouts and shredded cabbage... It doesn't look as colorful. It looks like okonomiyaki before mixing it up. It is topped with plenty of garlic mayo. There is a side of grated garlic the size of a ping pong ball, a small amount of fried onions, and two small pieces of pork. I mixed it all together with the noodles. The sauce seems to be more soy sauce-based rather than sesame dressing. Once everything is mixed well, it creates a taste of "mayo and garlic." The vegetables, as mentioned earlier, are bean sprouts topped with thinly sliced cabbage. The cabbage slices are so thin that they resemble the cheap pre-packaged ones sold in supermarkets. They are too fine for my liking as they don't provide a crunchy texture like a salad. The noodles are thick, flat, curly noodles with a grayish color. They have a good texture typical of Jiro-style cold noodles. The noodle portion is 250g, which is on the smaller side for this type of dish. However, I felt like there was too much vegetables, so I got a bit tired of them. The pork is rolled belly pork, tender and not bad. The garlic is extremely spicy and cheap quality... I couldn't eat it, so I left about half of it uneaten. Even though I only ate half of it, the garlic smell was so strong that my family, who are usually tolerant of me eating Jiro-style ramen and coming back home, wrinkled their noses at the level of smell. Hmm... In terms of Jiro-style cold dishes, this one is below average. I wish they would try a bit harder to differentiate themselves from other restaurants. Butayama's regular ramen menu also lacks distinctive points compared to other shops, so it's like a "Jiro aiming for an average score" type of place, so maybe the same goes for their cold dishes. For those who are not into Senrigan, Yojimbo, Jonan, or Takano Me, and prefer a more casual option, this level might be just right.